Dana White Wants Joanna Jedrzejczyk to Return to Strawweight

Joanna Jedrzejczyk put up a great fight against Valentina Shevchenko over five rounds on Saturday night at UFC 231 but she still came up short in a unanimous decision loss.

It was the first fight for Jedrzejczyk in the women’s flyweight division after teasing a move there for years as the UFC considered adding the weight class.

Unfortunately, the former strawweight queen struggled to deal with Shevchenko’s size and power over the course of the fight, giving up multiple takedowns and coming up short in the battle on the feet with Shevchenko landing more significant strikes.

Prior to the fight, Jedrzejczyk said regardless of the outcome that she planned to return to strawweight in 2019 in hopes of regaining the title she held for over two years and it appears that’s where UFC president Dana White would like to see her future as well.

White talked about Jedrzejczyk’s future at the UFC 231 post fight press conference following the end of the event.

“I love her, she’s such a great fighter and such a good person,” White said about Jedrzejczyk. “I actually consider her a friend. I want her to take some time off, spend some time with her family and then we’ll get together and we’ll talk about it but I’d like to see her stay at 115.”

Jedrzejczyk suffered through a couple of brutal weight cuts getting down to the strawweight division for her last few fights there but she definitely maintained a size and power advantage over most of her opposition.

Jedrzejczyk does have two losses to the current champion Rose Namajunas, but she holds wins over many of the top contenders in the division including top ranked challenger Jessica Andrade.

It will be interesting to see what Jedrzejczyk decides to do once she begins looking towards booking her next fight in 2019.